Post navigation

Choices (1)

I found myself wondering
As I walked along today
About what would happen
If I had the money
Of Bill Gates.
So that I could buy
Anything I wanted to,
Because the price of things
Never entered the equation.

Of course, I started
With the car.
“What kind of car would I buy
If I could buy any car that’s made
On the planet Earth?”

Would I buy a Lamborghini?
Or perhaps a Ferrari?
Would I buy that Ford Mustang
Shelby GT 500 Convertible?
Perhaps I’d go overboard
And by the Bugatti Veyron
16.4 Super Sport?

Perhaps, instead of buying
Just another car,
I’d buy something
From the land of trucks?
Like a fully loaded
F-450 King Ranch.
One of those trucks that scares away
All the little cars around these days.

As I thought about
The kind of car I’d buy
It occurred to me
That all those thoughts
Were what I’d been taught
By this world
That I live in.

And the truth is
That I’d buy a car
That would be a big surprise
To everyone.

Like a Mitsubishi i Electric Vehicle,
Or a Nissan Leaf.
Something I could really use.
Something practical.
Something I could use
Every day.

Then I thought about
Other things.
Like going on a camping trip.
If I could do that
Any way I wanted.
How would I do that?

Would I buy
A big honking RV?
One of those buses.
With sides that pop out.
And a full bath.
So you can get a shower.

The kind you can hide in
When the weather’s bad.
That has an air conditioner
That can turn the heat
Of Death Valley
Into a nice spring day.

One with TVs everywhere.
And a big satellite dish.
So you could watch TV
From wherever you are.

And I realized
That I would not do that.
I’ve learned
That I’d like to stay outdoors.
In the wild.
I remember all to well
How much fun I had
Last spring
When I slept outside
In my back yard
In my tent.
All by myself.

If I’m going camping
I’m not going in a home
That’s better than my house.
I’ll take my tent
And enjoy very much
Just being alive.
Where I can hear
The birds sing
In the middle of the night.
Where I can hear the sounds
Of a river or a creek
If there’s one nearby.
Of the sound of the ocean
If I’m camping at the beach.

I don’t want to go camping
Encased in a mobile home.
Protected from everything.
So I can just be numb.

I thought about
The mobile phone.
And what it is becoming.
How damn near everyone
Now owns
This creation called
A Smart Phone.
Some big piece of glass
Plastic,
Graphite
And metal.
With a touch screen no less.
So that they can use it
As a phone.
Or a camera.
Or a game system.
Or half a dozen
Other things.

And I thought about
How I don’t want one
Of those things.
Because they strike me
As a waste
Of time and resources.

I’ll stick with just a basic phone.
Without all that other stuff.
One that I can use
To make phone calls,
And write text messages.
One that I can have with me
In case some one in my family
Needs to get in touch with me.

That other stuff
Is just like icing
On a cake.
It would make me
Fat and lazy.
So I don’t want it
At all.

Another question
Popped into my head
While I was on my walk
This morning.
Would you buy an iPad,
Or a Netbook?

Now I already know
From the sales figures I’ve seen
That the iPad
Outsells Netbooks
On it’s own.

Hell.
It’s not even close.
Thanks to the iPad,
The netbook’s
All but dead and gone.

But you now.
I’ve played with an iPad
Many times.
And I find
It doesn’t work for me.
That with a tablet,
No matter what kind,
I can’t type
One damn thing.
On a touch screen,
I get pushed back
To the days
Before I learned to type.
And I have to
Hunt and peck.
One stupid letter at a time.

Thank you,
But no.
When the Netbook that I’m on
Right now,
Finally bites the dust.
I’m going to search the ‘Net,
And find a new one
To replace it.

And in doing so,
I’ll save a ton of cash.
‘Cause the truth is
You can almost buy 2 Netbooks
For the price of one iPad.

There are so many questions
That I asked today
While I was on my walk.
But I know
From the answers
That I have
To the questions
That I asked.

I’m doing well.
And I’m OK.
I’m just a bit different
It seems.
From a lot of people
That I’ve know
In this life
That I’ve been given.